Health Locus of Control, Peer Pressure, and Cognitive Triad among Adolescents

Adolescence is a sensitive period with many transitions experienced by teens. Many factors exert influence on an individual during adolescence; these influences may be psychological or physical in nature. Influence of (& influence on) perceptions of an adolescent play a crucial role in an individual's development. These perceptions may relate to their health, peers, or the level of control they feel they have on their lives. This research investigates the perceptions of adolescents on health locus of control, peer pressure, and cognitive triad. The purpose of the present research was to study the correlations between cognitive triad, health locus of control and peer pressure among late adolescents. For this, the study includes a sample of 200 college going late adolescents with mean age of 18.165 years, of which 100 are males and 100 are females. Further, out of these 100 males and 100 females, 50 are from rural background and 50 are from urban background. The results shows that males are more dependent upon external factors and powerful others for their HLOC as do females, while females are more inclined towards internal factors than do males and adolescents belonging from rural area are more inclined upon internal and chance factors, while urban adolescents are more dependent upon powerful others for their HLOC. The results for peer pressure indicate that rural males perceive more peer pressure than urban males and urban females perceive more peer pressure than rural females. For cognitive triad the results show that females and rural adolescents, in comparison to males and urban adolescents, respectively, have more distorted thoughts about the self, the world, and the future.